Job openings/Volunteer Development Coordinator

This (old) job opening has long been closed. If you'd like to work with us, please see our current job openings.

YOU ARE ...

.. gregarious, charismatic, persistent, and service-oriented. You are a passionate community builder and are (or can become) a passionate and outspoken advocate for MediaWiki development and other Wikimedia Foundation projects. You are patient with newcomers, but knowledgeable enough to hold your own with the technical veterans in Wikimedia projects, and can be a great mediator when needed. Though you are not necessarily a software architect, you are a capable coder and a good judge of the coding skills of others.

JOB TITLE

Volunteer Development Coordinator [CLOSED]

REPORTS TO

Chief Technical Officer

JOB PURPOSE

To ensure volunteers are motivated, excited and effective participants in software development necessary to the mission of the Wikimedia Foundation, and to increase the number of volunteer developers, testers, writers and wranglers.

JOB SUMMARY

Duties include, but are not limited to the following:

Act as a first-responder in the community, helping volunteers get started with development activities (coding, testing, documentation, wrangling) and match volunteers to opportunities

Help volunteers ensure their work meets with MediaWiki development standards, and help ensure that the developer documentation is complete and useful

Shepherd volunteer work through the process of inclusion in MediaWiki and deployment to Wikimedia websites

Represent the interests of volunteers in situations where they might not be present (e.g. office meetings, software design discussions), and involve volunteers when possible

Ensure that the Wikimedia Foundation is upholding its values of transparency and inclusiveness, especially as it pertains to software development

Publish and promote list of possible projects for newcomers, ensuring the list is easy-to-find, properly prioritized, and current

Maintain a holistic view of the volunteer development community at all times, working toward an organized and accurate view of the status of all volunteer-led activities

Recruit volunteers online, at conferences and meetings where new and existing volunteer developers might be found, encouraging participation and educating prospective volunteers

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Excellent written communication skills (clear and prolific)

2+ years experience working with online volunteers

3+ years in a technical position within a software development organization (for example: writing code, writing technical specifications, testing, or line-level management of developers)

Experience working with remote and distributed teams required

The ideal candidate will be creative, highly motivated, and able to operate effectively in multiple cultural contexts

Must be comfortable in a highly collaborative, consensus-oriented environment

Must be comfortable working in a highly transparent fashion, sometimes accepting candid public scrutiny

Must play well with others, with an ability to diffuse tense situations with humor and humility

Must have a strong affinity for the Wikimedia mission

ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

B.S. or M.S. Computer Science or related field preferred.

Experience with best practices in secure and scalable web application development a plus

Experience with PHP and Linux/Unix shell usage preferred, with other software development experience such as Python, Perl, Ruby, or Java welcome

Any other free/open software development experience highly welcome

Experience using and/or developing with wikis and participatory production environments a plus (bonus points if it's MediaWiki)

Active participation as a Wikimedia volunteer would be an asset, though not a prerequisite.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation got its start in 2003 and is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia. Based in San Francisco, California, we currently employ over 150 staff and contractors globally. The Wikimedia Foundation is committed to creating a world in which every single human being can freely and easily share in the sum of all knowledge. Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive nearly 500 million unique visitors per month, making them the 5th most popular web property worldwide. Wikipedia is available in more than 280 languages, containing more than 47 million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of over 100,000 people. In an effort to continue our mission, we are hiring talented and creative individuals to join the team.